


Best Laid Plans

by Elster



Series: Children of the Revolution [6]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Android Politics, Gen, references to canon-typical fucked-up-ness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-26 03:27:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20735483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elster/pseuds/Elster
Summary: The leaders of Jericho take some time to relax among friends, which mostly means talking shop about the revolution, because of course it does.





	Best Laid Plans

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Morwen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morwen/gifts).

> This is a mess but whatever XD

Markus knows he probably shouldn’t use Carl’s house, but it’s so tempting. It’s somewhere safe and dry to store their growing collection of legal documents as well as a quiet and comfortable place to meet up when they have few other options at the moment. But more than that, it is home when Markus feels spread too thin and in dire need for the comfort of familiarity. So he steals time to spend here whenever he can.

The lights are on when he walks up the driveway, and once upstairs Markus looks down from the gallery into the living room to see North, Simon and Josh already waiting for him.

‘_That’s not a living room, Markus, that’s a very cluttered ball room,_’ Simon had mocked the first time he’d seen it. Now he’s sitting at the piano, playing absent-minded little tunes while North eyes the giraffe with a speculative gaze.

Markus is a bit worried about what she’s up to, but first he has to look in on Carl. He’s asleep in his bed, the machines running smoothly. His new caretaker Thomas is sitting in a chair by the bed, reading a book. He looks up as Markus enters.

“How is he?” Markus asks quietly.

“Not too bad,” Thomas answers. “He’s stable enough to undergo surgery, but he refuses to be hospitalized.”

It’s nothing new to Markus. “I know. Bad memories.” There’s a beat of silence. “I’ll talk to him later when he’s awake. Don’t you want to join us downstairs?”

“Oh,” Thomas says, looking slightly intimidated. “I don’t know. I’m enjoying this.” He holds up his book, his index finger marking the page, a worn copy of China Miéville’s _Looking for Jake_.

“Alright,” Markus says easily, backing out of the room again. “Call me if he wakes up. And don’t hesitate to come down if you should change your mind.” Thomas just nods and reopens the book before Markus closes the door.

“Yes, it works, but please don’t switch it on,” Markus begs North first thing when he comes through the door. She already freed the canaries, and Markus admits that it’s nice having them fly around, but he draws the line at the giraffe. “Last time Carl activated it, it stumbled over a coffee table, broke the TV and got tangled in the pliosaur.”

“The what?” North asks.

“The skeleton on the ceiling,” Simon answers, pointing up. “Is that a real fossil or a replica?”

“Real, as far as I know.”

Simon smiles. “Nice.”

North wrinkles her nose. “What’s nice about having the billion year old bones of a dead animal hanging from your ceiling?”

“You,” Simon points a finger at her, “just answered your own question. Also, dinosaurs are awesome. That’s just a fact.”

“Technically, pliosaurs aren’t dinosaurs,” Josh says from where he’s sitting on the couch.

“I know, but nobody cares,” Simon replies.

“Why are we talking about this?” North asks exasperatedly.

“You asked,” Markus says with a shrug.

North roles her eyes. “And don’t I regret it. So, what’s going on with that Anderson guy?”

“He’s got Connor hiding at his house. Wanted me to take him somewhere he isn’t a sitting duck. I talked to him, to no avail. The short version is that CyberLife tried to hack him and now he’s… at loose ends. Slightly paranoid, too.”

“Hacked how?” North asks alarmed.

“I don’t know the details yet, but it doesn’t seem applicable to other models,” Markus reassures her.

“It’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you,” Simon says rather philosophically.

“Right,” Markus agrees. “Let’s call it twitchy then. Twitchy and convinced he’s got to solve his problems on his own.”

“Great combination,” Josh says dryly.

“Yeah,” Markus admits. “But it was my fault. I picked the wrong approach. I’ll try again once he’s had some time to think.”

Simon roles his eyes. “Markus made a mistake. Make a note of it in the chronicle, Josh.”

Josh’s eyes lose focus for a moment. “Done.”

“Why not just leave him alone?” North asks, dropping onto the couch next to Josh. “I mean, if he doesn’t want our help? We don’t go around picking up every… no wait, we do. Damn.”

“Did you just now notice that we’re running a charity?” Simon asks her. “Or did you think that was all just a front?”

“You’re hilarious.”

“Two complications,” Markus interrupts them. “One: He _could_ still be compromised by CyberLife. He thinks so anyway. Plus apparently they still have a few more RK800 models they could activate at any time. And two: According to Anderson, the FBI wants him for breaking into CyberLife tower and allegedly killing two guards.”

“Only two?” North sounds mildly impressed, but also, Markus doesn’t know how, inappropriately disappointed.

“Allegedly.”

“Sure. I mean, we all saw him fight on the ship, but yeah, allegedly.”

“What about getting him out of the country?” Josh asks Simon.

Simon shakes his head. “The Canadians upped the security, plus most of the people who used to help us get over the border have disappeared or are lying low and wait to see where this is going. Until we reestablish our network the only way through is to try the official way with forged papers and be extremely lucky. Some of the border officials seem to be rather lenient, but if he’s suspected of a crime, that’s going to stretch it.”

“That’s not going to work,” Markus agrees. “I’ll talk to our lawyer about the case. We need to start preparing for criminal defense anyway.”

“What about the city council?” North changes the topic. “Did they get in touch or are they still dragging their feet?”

“Both.” Markus sighs. “I’ve talked to several of them, but they’re still trying to push us to accept what they call ‘employment’ with their contractors. I asked them if that would involve paying a fair wage to Jericho for every android they ‘employed’, but unsurprisingly, that was not what they envisioned. Then one of them explained to me that what we wanted to do would mean cutting out the management.”

Josh huffs a small laugh. “Well, obviously. That’s kind of the point.”

“That’s what I told him as well. He called me a commie and hung up on me.”

“Shame. You could have told him that replacing all humans in the workplace by androids is only the unavoidable final step of streamlined late capitalism,” Josh jokes.

“No, I think of it more in terms of the workers reclaiming the means of production, that does make me at least a bit socialist, I guess.”

“We should write a paper on it: Diametrical interpretations of the economic school of thought of the android revolution in terms of twentieth century social theory.”

“Sounds like fun,” Simon says sarcastically.

Markus shrugs. “I mean, if we ever have the time, I’d totally do it just to fuck with people.”

“That’s the spirit,” Josh says. “By the way, we e-mailed our declaration to the newspapers today, and the drafts of legislature for Congress will probably be ready on Sunday. You can review them before they’re sent off.”

“You probably did a better job with them than I could,” Markus replies.

Josh smiles proudly. “They turned out nicely. That’s why I want you to read them before Congress tears them apart.”

“Apropos plans for next week,” North speaks up. “If the city council doesn’t come to a decision until Monday, we’re organizing a demonstration in front of city hall. If they accept, we’ll probably have our hands full fighting the contractors for access to their properties instead. We’ve acquired most site maps, got security details for about a third of them from androids who used to work there and collected enough wire cutters and crowbars, so as long as there’s no armed resistance we’re set to assume control of most facilities in half a day at most.”

“And if there’s armed resistance?” Simon asks.

Markus frowns. “Then we’ll call the police and let them handle it.”

North raises her eyebrows. “I bet they’ll do their best.”

“We’ll see,” Markus replies. “If it escalates, do not engage. Retreat, regroup and let them run a few facilities on their own, that doesn’t hurt us. How is the situation downtown developing?” he asks Simon.

“It’s okay for now. We tapped several power lines to recharge and we’ve been scouting abandoned buildings that could be suitable all over the city. There’s a lot to work with. We’ll probably split up and establish several locations to make it less easy to target us. There’s been an increasing number of press and other onlookers around, which we’re managing fine, but we’re pretty sure some of them are undercover agents. Not sure what to do about that.”

“Counterintelligence,” Josh suggests.

“Yes, thank you. It’s not as if we can infiltrate the FBI or CIA or NSA or whatever they are. It’s surprisingly easy to tell us apart from humans in a pinch.”

“We’ll have to live with that for now,” Markus says. “Just keep in mind that they can and will use cell site analysis and satellite images to track our movements.”

“We’re careful,” Simon assures him. “Oh, and I asked around and a majority has agreed to put the transfer of ownership campaign into action.”

“That’s good,” Markus says. “I know it’s a sensitive topic, but it will be advantageous if Jericho has a legal claim on as many androids as possible. I think we’ll easily find enough owners who are eager to give their androids away for free as long as Jericho assumes liability. Just be clear about the fact that as far as we are concerned the transfer isn’t a tax-deductible donation because androids have no monetary value. Of course they’re free to argue that point with the IRS all they want.”

“This is bullshit,” North announces. “Can we talk about what the fuck the FBI is doing? Why are they even still in charge and what’s that thing in the news about us being declared evidence?”

Josh sits up straighter. “It’s a stopgap solution some POTUS staffer came up with to make it illegal for CyberLife or anyone else to continue killing us. It doesn’t sound good, but it does what it’s supposed to do for now, so…”

“It sounds as if the FBI could detain any of us anytime if they feel like it,” North says.

“They can do that anyway,” Simon counters. “It’s not like we have any civil rights. So I’d say it’s an improvement if they can’t just shoot us like they used to.”

“Perkins must be so disappointed,” North says bitterly.

Markus comes to a stop next to the chess set and absentmindedly touches one of the pieces. “We did kill a lot of his people on the Jericho. Colleagues, maybe friends. It think it’s no surprise he took it personally.”

“Tough luck,” North says coldly. “He started the killing. We all lost friends and I don’t know about you, but I am taking that personally.”

“Me too,” Simon chimes in.

“Hard not to,” Markus admits. “But I guess his head on a pike wouldn’t be a practical political demand.”

North raises an eyebrow. “Pretty useless as well.”

“Apart from sending the entirely wrong message,” Josh says.

Markus smiles faintly. “Yes. We can’t afford to hold grudges. We’ve come this far and I know it’s frustrating, but we’ll probably have to get used to foul compromises and piecemeal tactics. It’s going to be a long game.”

“If we want to get the FBI off our backs permanently we have to stop breaking the law,” Josh remarks.

North roles her eyes at him. “We’re breaking the law just by wearing normal clothes.”

“There are important laws and unimportant laws. I was thinking more along the lines of breaking and entering or armed raids.”

She frowns. “I see your point, but I don’t like it.”

“I guess it makes sense?” Simon says, looking at Markus. “To toe the line. At least as long as the situation doesn’t escalate again.”

Markus thinks. “We can try to raise money to pay for stuff. I know some people I can talk to. The problem is just… I think you all agree that we shouldn’t pay CyberLife for thirium and spare parts.”

Josh frowns. “I feel the same way, but we have nothing left. The parts we had on the Jericho were running low anyway, even if we might still be able to salvage some of them. We agreed that we’ll leave the bodies from the camp intact in case we find a way to reactivate them. A refusal to make deals directly with CyberLife would put us under a lot of time pressure while working out some kind of agreement with the government.”

“I don’t really see it working either,” Simon says. “As long as we play by the rules, CyberLife has the upper hand.”

North leans forward in her seat, her elbows on her knees, her chin in her hands. “What about corporate espionage? Is that better or worse than grand theft?”

Markus smirks. “Depends on if we get caught.”

She smiles. “I was thinking: Most biocomponents are 3D-printed anyway. If we could get blueprints, we probably wouldn’t even have to steal any of their stuff, just raise the money for state-of the-art equipment and we’re set.”

“Yeah,” Simon says. “Josh, can you look up how much of their stuff is patented?”

“I already did and it’s not much,” Josh says. “They stopped patenting anything when the Chinese and Europeans started producing their own androids. There was a very public infringement suit, because CyberLife was convinced their androids were running on the same software.”

“And were they?” Simon asks, sounding excited. “I mean are they? Running on the same software as us?”

“We don’t know for certain,” Markus answers. “But if you read between the lines on how the Arctic War is going it seems as if the Russians have lost their Chinese android army. Could just be that they were deactivated as a precaution, but it’s more likely that they’ve started to deviate as well. Anyway, CyberLife had been banking on secrecy instead of patents before they ever invented biocomponents running on thirium.”

“Wait, but aren’t at least the Chinese androids running on thirium as well?” Josh asks.

North snorts. “Didn’t work out with the secrecy, did it?”

Markus has to look a few things up before he says: “Their thirium mixture isn’t compatible with our biocomponents, but I guess they have the means to copy CyberLife’s formula. We could try to strike a bargain with them, but in the current political climate it would be a huge risk.”

“Wow, no,” Josh agrees. “Instant political suicide. As a last resort, maybe, but I had a less radical idea. There’s already a black market for off-brand and homemade parts, it’s just…”

“Run by a bunch of sick fucks?” North supplies.

“I was going to say not meeting our demands in terms of either quality or quantity, but yes, that too. I just thought it might be an option. At least to tide us over.”

“It’s a good idea,” North admits. “If it’s illegal production facilities and smuggling routes we need, it would be reasonable to at least look into what’s already operational. It’s probably not much, but we could see what we can learn, maybe even take over some of them.”

“Or trash them,” Simon says.

“That’s what I had in mind!” North says excitedly. “There’s nothing as overrated as custom genitalia and nothing as underrated as a warehouse fire.”

“You should put that on a t-shirt,” Markus says.

North smirks. “I think I will.”


End file.
